38 Weeks

Here's how my day went.

1. To avoid mounting anxiety derived from not being able to sleep, I finally go out to the family room and zonk out on the couch at 4:45am.
2. Woke up at 6:45am to kids wanting breakfast and decide I may as well get up.
3. Get kids to school at 8am.
4. Settle the two little kids down with activities to do so I can work online from 8:30am until 10am.
5. Clean the house from 10-11:15, which for today included vacuuming all rooms, cleaning the kids' bathroom, doing the dishes, wiping down all counters/appliances, sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor, making the boys' beds, cleaning the toy room, generally picking up the other two front rooms, and getting garbage gathered and taken out before the garbage man got here.
6. 11:15, I finally begin my pre-appointment shower...that's a process when you are talking about this type of appointment.  Trust me on that.  Get the kids lunch, get Sara ready for preschool and James ready to go to my mom's house....all while getting myself ready.
7. 12:31, we finally get Sara off on her bus for preschool. They were nearly 10 minutes late, which meant I was 10 minutes late getting on the road to my OB appointment.  I get James settled into nap at my mom's house and take off.  I have to skip switching cars with Jared because I just don't have the time, which means I got to drive the big huge van all the way into North Scottsdale, which I hate doing.
8. I get to my appointment on time, thank heavens (or so I thought at the time).  I wait from 1:15-1:35 to be called.
9. 1:35:  doctor gets called out to deliver a baby.  It will be at least an hour wait.  I opt to wait.  I time contractions during my wait after arranging childcare/transportation with my family; contractions are 4-6 minutes apart, as close as 2 in a few cases.  They are not unbearable, but they are painful and I would categorize them a different from the last week or so.
10. 2:50:  I get called back to a room, as the previous timeline indicated doctor should be on her way.  I do the weight check, blood pressure, urine sample, etc and then wait in the room.
11. 3:10:  doctor is apparently still waiting to deliver baby.  I opt to go back in the waiting room to be more comfortable.  
12. 3:25:  doctor updates that baby is still not here, and she wants the receptionist to just reschedule everyone instead of waiting it out.  I realize there is nothing I can do about this, that this is the nature of the biz.  

But man, am I annoyed.  

I rescheduled for tomorrow, but ended up calling back to cancel my 38 week appointment all together after breaking down in the car about having wasted my entire afternoon, preparing so much, being emotionally so ready for this final pre-natal appointment to schedule my induction and see how much baby has progressed-all for nothing.  This is with contractions still about 6 minutes apart and I could tell they were fizzling, not that this helped my emotional well-being.  

I got home at 4:25 to relieve my mom who stayed so much longer than I anticipated.  I called my OB's office to verify my induction was being scheduled, and they verified it is-I should get a call tomorrow about it with instructions on what to anticipate in 6 days.  I am trying to see that as a silver lining.

So here's the little info I have from my appointment:  

• BP is 130/70, which is great; at this point with James, my BP was 148/96 and I was being sent to the hospital to induce because of pre-eclampsyia.
• I didn't gain any weight again, but I also didn't lose any.  Net gain remains at 22 pounds and that is what it will be for the pregnancy in all since I have no more appointments.
• No clue what my urine showed except that once again, despite my many efforts, I was dehydrated.

That's about it!  I don't know how much more I could have dilated from last week without having gone into labor.  I am sure baby probably dropped more as I have more of a waistline this week and I can feel the baby's head grinding into my pelvic bones (that's the best description I got).  I continue to have very little appetite and nausea, though that's more under control since I'm taking Zofran everyday.  I have to time contracts at least once a day to keep a close eye on them.  Today was, from a positive standpoint, a good run through of what needing to rush to the hospital would look like.  So my bag is fully packed, the computer bag is ready to go, and a lot of last minute cleaning jobs are done-I just need to upkeep all that through the week. I probably have a list of 10-12 extra projects I would ideally like to get done in the next 6 days, but oh well if they don't get done.  

Next week will be busy and crazy, that's for sure...for now, I just want to go to bed and forget about today....Finish the week so I can get into a weekend of true baby prep.  The good news:  Jared said he is bringing home ice cream.  I love that man.